Zoning is destiny
Engineers know that if a new gizmo can theoretically be built, it will be built. In urban environments, where housing demand is strong: if a higher-value property can be built, it will be built.
Zoning is destiny — as demonstrated by this this little fable from suburban
When word circulated last fall that a builder planned to demolish a century-old house in
Wouldn’t you want to preserve that?
There are two ways to preserve something: with money or with laws. Which do you think the neighbors tried first?
The “Yellow House,” as neighbors called it, was a beloved landmark, according to a petition signed by 350 nearby residents.
Funny, they didn’t mention the six-lane highway two streets over …
How much does it cost to say that something is beloved?
A one-time general store, with a sunny yellow-and-white exterior, a rare two-story porch and double front door, it had long served as an anchor for the community, they said, and its loss would be “devastating.”
How much were the neighbors prepared to offer to prevent their devastation?
But the house also sat smack in the middle of two legal building lots. And the neighbors’ efforts to spare it, either by convincing the builder to move it over to one of the two lots or to move it to a new location …
Who would pay for this expensive move?
… just couldn’t compete with what two big new houses could fetch, the builder said.
[Local conservation advocates] say the builder who bought the Yellow House didn’t appreciate its historic significance or its importance to the community. They say he rejected an offer from a neighborhood homeowner who wanted to move the house to one of the lots.
The builder, John Karanik of Suburban Builders in
For that matter:
The two sides … agree on why it happened: It wasn’t about the house; it was about the double lot. The demand for land in the
Pressure to sell? Like coercion?
Real estate agents, small and medium-size builders, land brokers and developers have been calling and writing property owners in close-in neighborhoods for some time with offers to buy.
This ‘pressure’ (some might call it economic appreciation) arises because there is less house on the property that the zoning will allow:
The rights go back many decades to when the houses were first built and situated in the middle of large pieces of land that were officially recorded as separate lots. That was a common practice in many older jurisdictions in the region. The owners built that way to provide for a side yard or gardening space or to keep some distance from neighbors.
“For many years it was not at all unusual for one house to have four lots” in many towns in
How dastardly of them.
To preserve community character, more neighborhood groups are turning to local government officials for help, such as in passing new zoning rules to reduce the square footage a house and driveway can cover on a lot or to limit the height of buildings, he said.
Downzoning, as it is called, rewards those who already built and penalizes those who have not yet built.
Others are considering setting up their own protections through options such as local historic districts, conservation districts (pdf.) or historic overlay zoning.
I used to live in a ‘conservation district,’ which in practice meant ‘the taste police.’ As my then-next-door neighbor Paul Krugman asked in exasperation, the evening our local ‘conservation district’ proposal was being debated — “of the people, for the people, by the people who have nothing better to do,” as he cracked — in the local elementary school, “What are we preserving? There’s no architectural homogeneity at all.”
All three have been tried in the
Because many in the group believe that the character of their neighborhood is at stake, Harscheid is surveying residents to see whether they support setting up a local historic district. Such a district might require public notice or a hearing before a house could be torn down or it might require that a house be listed on the open market before it is sold to a developer who intends to raze it.
She also is trying to find out whether there is support for seeking designation on the National Register of Historic Places, an honor that doesn’t prevent demolition, but can provide state tax incentives.
By the way, targeted tax credits work. You think buying them might be preferable to legislating against their evolution?
“We might want to require that before a person tears down a house that they have to put it on the market for a certain number of months.”
Any time you want to take a property, eminent domain is available … or is it? J
The goal is not to discourage additions or new building, she said, but to encourage architectural compatibility. “My house is less than 1,500 square feet. And I knew what the neighborhood looked like when I bought here,” Harscheid said. “What we’re trying to say is if you move into an area where the houses are small . . . why would you want to put a Cadillac in a VW parking spot?”
You knew it didn’t have a microwave, broadband, or cable TV. Why would you want those now?
It comes down to a simple rule: If you zone it, they will build.
In
If you truly value something, you must pay for it. Indeed, that’s the proof.
